At 20, how do you stand out from the crowd? (guest opinion)

I am known in my family as the planner. Ever since I can remember, my mom has joked that I may be her little girl, but I was born 40 years old and also doubled as her personal secretary. I always knew what came next, what I had to do to get to that point, and exactly how long it was going to take me to get there.

When I got to Wellesley College, I was suddenly surrounded by women who were earning impressive degrees, applying for global internships, tweaking their resumes, and perfecting their interview pitches. They were borderline neurotic – terrified they wouldn’t make it in the real world, regardless of their substantial experience.

I, on the other hand, was an English major whose resume consisted of a summer job at my tennis club for a couple of years and a lot of hours tutoring at the middle school. I was actually embarrassed to work on my resume, feeling pathetic next to these undergraduates who had had internships in obscure countries or prestigious companies in the Boston area.

In my generation it’s become increasingly difficult to differentiate oneself. It’s like a never ending college application – yeah, you have great grades, extracurriculars, and volunteer work, but why should we accept you out of the thousands of other applicants with the same exact credentials?

It doesn’t pay to be good anymore – you must be exceptional.

But how do you become exceptional? I think it’s about finding something you’re passionate about and running with it. It’s about breaking the mold.

I’ve noticed that, if I’m not careful, my life gets reduced to checklists – a rundown of all the things I’ve been told by society I must do if I want to be successful. Go to college, get a job, find a husband, buy a house, have a kid, retire. Although I’m the first to admit that I love my plans, I don’t want to be one.

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I’m 20 years old! I may have lost the memo under stacks of textbooks, timesheets, and tissues – but I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to be more exciting.

Many will say that our generation has it easy – and in a lot of respects I completely agree. We have the world at our fingertips, literally, with the help of incredible technological advances. However, in some warped way, I’m not sure that’s all it’s cracked up to be.

We may have access to great resources, but so does everyone else. We may have graduated college, but so did everyone else. We may have an internship or a job under our belt, but so does everyone else. These incredible advances in our lives don’t make us extraordinary, they make us average.

Perhaps it’s time for us twenty-somethings to find the next big thing that can set us apart from the crowd, moving beyond the basic degree and work experience. What can we do to break the mold and be exceptional? To throw away society’s checklist and become interesting and exciting human beings again?

I believe the first step is embracing that this process is messy. After that comes rolling up our sleeves and following our passions. I’m hoping I’ll figure out the rest of the steps as I go along.

Lauren Wilbur was raised in Forest Grove and graduated from Forest
Grove High School in 2011. She attends Portland State University, where
she is a sophomore majoring in Communications.